TO BE OR NOT TO BE
TO BE OR NOT TO BE
Sent: 11/5/96; 7:20:40 PM
From: 75201.1404@CompuServe.COM (Erik Sherman)
>> I don't get it. Everyone in that room is apalled by Oracle and Sun and >> their network computers. Life is so short. We'll all be dead soon. >> What's the big deal?
As you pointed out, this is driven by fear. Thre is another factor, however: people get involved with games of intrigue because they have nothing of substance of their own. Some get lucky and make money and think they are important, some fawn over the first set, some write about both groups, and all of them pretend that they are involved with something essential..
It's actually quite similar to how politics works. The politicians and spin doctors are convinced that they can move people. They can, but it's in a stampede away from them. Voter turnout gets lower and lower, and still the people at the top tell themselves that they know what they are doing. They don't and they are the only ones who haven't figured it out.
>> Reading the industry weeklies, it seems that corporate developers >> are using Java as a way of expressing their dissatisfaction with >> Microsoft, but it will be a short-lived rebellion. Why not use >> Microsoft's Java? the CEO will ask. The CIO will either go with >> Microsoft or get a new job.
Ah, how true. And the press makes it worse. As an example, I recently finished an article for a magazine which will remain nameless. It was on dial-up communications and one of my conclusions was that most people don't need ISDN because they really don't need the extra capabiities (I don't mean people like you, but the average person who might go on the Web an hour or two in a week). Guess what? They didn't like the conclusion. Of course, the fact that they had wanted to lay out ISDN modem reviews all around the piece (without them mentioning this to me) had nothing to do with it. Too often, the people in the press don't talk with and don't understand the people who use the technology -- only the people in the industry itself. It's too self-referential.
>> Microsoft has the answer to Java. It's called Java! "Embrace & >> Extend". The only way to exist alongside Microsoft is to do things >> that Microsoft can't do. Microsoft can fully embrace Java. It plays >> to their strengths, it doesn't harness [[#glossPatch Web Energy|96/01/webenergy|]], it's a losing >> strategy.
Another way to put this is that you need to harness your relationship with your customers and do the things that people want and need. A case in point: in writing an article for MacWEEK, I learned that Apple has largely ignored the professional television industry (at least in the view of the tv people). Guess what? That's a market in which the Mac presence is GROWING! More and more work is happening directly on a Mac without the use of half-a-million dollar editing rooms. Apple could do great things in this market, which happens to be accustomed to spending lots of money for what they want. But they are too focused on competing on an "equal" footing. Why not go out and admit that you have natural markets, rather than resenting the fact? Because you are driven by ego. Because you think you are in the technology business rather than being in the people business.
>> It's possible that I would support a 211-like proposition if it >> weren't drafted so heavily in favor of plaintiff attorneys, and if it >> didn't expose directors and officers to personal liability.
While I don't know enough about the legislation to discuss it, I understand in principal the rationale for the latter part. The problem is that the officers and directors can milk the company for cash and leave a hulk that has nothing to offer. If you are reckless and screw up, you pay with your savings, reputation, etc. If, instead, you are upper management in a corporation, you pay by taking a golden parachute that tides you over until you can mess up the next poor unfortunate. I've seen it happen before, and it's hell on those left to clean up the mess.
Erik Sherman
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